Activists: Syrian forces launch new Aleppo strikes

In this citizen journalism image provided by Aleppo Media Center (AMC), an anti-Bashar Assad activist group, and authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, Syrian citizens fill water in a bucket to extinguish shops in flames caused by a Syrian government forces warplane attack, at al-Bab neighborhood in Aleppo, Syria, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2014. Syrian military helicopters dropped barrels packed with explosives on rebel-held areas of the northern city of Aleppo on Saturday, killing at least a dozen of people including a family trapped in a car, as government forces inched closer to opposition-held areas. (AP Photo/Aleppo Media Center, AMC)

Photo: HOEP

BEIRUT - Syrian military helicopters dropped barrels packed with explosives in the government's latest air raids on rebel-held areas of the northern city of Aleppo on Saturday, killing at least 23 people including a family trapped in a burning car, activists said.

In neighboring Lebanon, a car bomb blew up near a gas station in a Shiite town, killing at least three people, in the latest attack linked to the war in neighboring Syria.

Footage on al-Manar television, associated with the Shiite group Hezbollah, showed a bright orange blaze as black silhouettes of people ran by the gas station in the northeastern town of Hermel that lies near the Syrian border. Blasts could be heard in the background. The Lebanese Red Cross said another 18 people were wounded. The organization initially reported that four people were killed, but later revised the number downwards.

The large blast occurred near a school for impoverished and orphaned children. None were injured, officials said.

It was the latest in a series of attacks targeting Lebanon's Shiite community, as Syria's violence causes neighboring Lebanon's sectarian tensions to escalate into outright violence.

Sunni militant groups have claimed responsibility for a relentless series of attacks on Shiite parts of Lebanon, including a bomb that exploded in Hermel in late January. They say it is in retaliation for the Shiite Hezbollah group sending its fighters into Syria's civil war to support forces of President Bashar Assad.

Lebanon's Sunni community has also been hit, most notably by a deadly double car bombing.